Nova Terra
November "Nova" Terra is the code name of a Terran Ghost in the Blizzard Entertainment game, StarCraft: Ghost. Her early life is described in StarCraft_Ghost:_Nova. Nova was born to the Terra family, one of the Terran Confederacy's rich and powerful "Old Families". She lived in the Terra skyscraper in Tarsonis City, Tarsonis. Her family consisted of her father Constantino and his mistress Eleftheria, her mother Annabella and her "jig" Edward Peters, and her older siblings Zebediah "Zeb" and Clara. She saw Eleftheria as a second mother and Edward Peters as a second father. Nova was psychic, although she didn't realize it. (Her father did, though.) She could only sense emotions, and was told that she was "empathetic". Normally psychic children are picked up by "Wranglers", barely-psychic employees of the Ghost program, but because Nova was a member of the Old Families, Constantino was able to protect her from them, and even from her knowledge of her own abilities. Nova realized she was psychic, though, when she was able to read thoughts from the mind of another Old Family "suitor". During her fifteenth birthday party, Constantino Terra received news that one of his factories was attacked by the Sons of Korhal, specifically in areas which had the highest concentrations of employees and the most expensive equipment. It seemed like an inside job. Betrayal and Flight Because of frequent attacks against the Old Families, a number of them were planning on sending some of their children to a resort on Tyrador IX. They would only send a small number so it wouldn't look like they were frightened. Constantino and Annabella Terra had an argument about sending Nova to the planet; they reconciled to sending her, but Nova wanted to remain, and Edward Peters supported her in this. Zebediah Terra remained on Tarsonis to learn more about the family business, while Clara Terra remained because of her fiance. Three days after her party, Nova was ordered to go on one of these flights; neither Nova nor Edward Peters could resist the command. Nova boarded the vessel; however, her new-found abilities enabled her to feel her parents' minds as they were attacked (and slain) by anti-Confederate rebels, so she left the flight at nearly the last minute to see what was going on. Edward Peters, Gustavo McBain (a Korhalian welder bitter because of the destruction of Korhal but who joined this group rather than the Sons of Korhal) and other rebels were murdering her family and employees. Peters ordered McBain to shoot Nova. He never made it. Nova's psychic powers increased dramatically due to the mental stress of seeing her family murdered by someone she had trusted (namely Peters). She unleashed telepathic and telekinetic abilities without any control, destroying parts of the Terra skyscraper, along with the brains of her opponents and hundreds of other people nearby. Then she fled to "the Gutter", the southern part of Tarsonis City and a den of poverty and crime; as far from her former life as she could. Meanwhile, former Tarsonis Police Force detective and now Wrangler Agent Malcolm "Mal" Kelerchian was ordered by his superior, Ilsa Killiany, to hunt down Nova - she was so determined to capture Nova that she assigned her the code X41822N even before Nova was made a part of the Ghost program. Only a powerful telepath (rated PI8 or higher) could use telekinesis as well. His investigation would be slow and frustrating. The Gutter Shortly after arriving in the Gutter, Nova ran into two men who attempted to rape her. They were unsuccessful; Nova severely injured them with her telekinetic abilities. The two goons worked for Julius Antoine "Fagin" Dale, the crime lord of the Gutter. Fagin decided he would "acquire" her. Nova was brought before him, in a suicidal frame of mind due to all the deaths she saw and caused, but she refused to serve him. She read his mind (and that of his minions) and realized that his chief lieutenant, Markus Ralian, wanted Fagin dead. Fagin, however, wasn't scared of Nova, nor could she provoke him into killing her. He told her to leave. He would see her starve (he could watch her over traffic monitors) and then she would have to serve him. After she left, he ordered the shopkeepers not to feed her. Over the next four days, Nova became weaker due to starvation and partial dehydration, while Fagin learned who she really was. Suddenly things were different. He ordered one of his enforcers, an exceedingly tough and brutal man known only as "the Pitcher" because of an incident in which he drank a pitcher of grain alcohol without ill effect. The Pitcher was so "fogged" by drug use he could no longer remember his real name. Regardless of his physical prowess (no one had escaped a hit attempt by the Pitcher in years) Nova easily killed him by frying his mind. She stole food and decided to go after Fagin. Fagin responded by acquiring a psi-screen from Confederate Army Supply Sergeant Morwood, then surrounded himself with insane gunmen (most had multiple guns), drug addicts who desperately needed a fix, and children. Nova was ambushed by the gunmen (she almost didn't notice them in time because she couldn't keep the thoughts of the drug addicts out of her mind) but defeated them. However, she witnessed one going crazy and murdering his compatriot. When she finally confronted Fagin again, he ordered his men to kill children one by one until she surrendered. His psi-screen could also torture Nova at range. His plan worked. Escape from Madness Nearly six months later, Fagin was using Nova as a "loyalty detector" and assassin. However, she never went outside, so she was never seen by Kelerchian's allies in the police force. Instead, people had to come see Fagin, and if he didn't like what Nova told him, the person died. Fagin was going insane due to overuse of the psi-screen, killing people for no good reason, even his own children. When Markus Ralian contacted Supply Sergeant Morwood about this, he was told that the psi-screen is not to be used for more than seven hours at a time, and using it for even twelve hours causes memory loss. Ralian informed Morwood that Fagin had worn the psi-screen without pause for six months! Ralian really wanted to kill Fagin now, but couldn't bring himself to do this. Nova had no trouble reading this from his mind. Nova knew the psi-screen couldn't protect Fagin from her telekinesis, but she never had the opportunity to use it on him. Meanwhile Agent Kelerchian discovered her location from contacts with the police force. He went to acquire her, but was ordered by Ilsy Killiany to take Major Esmeralda Ndoci and her "Annihilators" with him. Ndoci and her twenty-one minions were psychopaths who were ill-suited to such a delicate mission. They were more interested in fighting the Zerg or the Sons of Korhal, but they had to follow Killiany's orders. The Sons of Korhal were leading a strike on the orbital platforms over Tarsonis, but the Annihilators (a ground-based unit) weren't suited to fighting up there. Because of the desperate situation, which (according to Killiany) would only get worse without Ghosts, who were now in very short supply, acquiring a powerful telepath like Nova was an "Alpha priority". The troops were not allowed to injure Nova at all. Kelerchian, despite wearing a forcefield, was afraid of Ndoci, for good reason. He figured he could talk to Fagin first, and if that didn't work, then he would "summon the Marines". Unfortunately, Fagin had lost his mind and was in no condition to bargain. As he ranted, Nova used her powers on Markus Ralian, forcing him to shoot and kill Fagin. She and Kelerchian talked a little; Kelerchian let Nova scan his mind (by turning off his psi-screen) and she learned that if she went with Kelerchian, she would become a Ghost. A mindwipe was a standard part of the training program lately, which Nova saw as an incentive. She didn't want to remember the deaths and murders. At the same time, the Sons of Korhal had penetrated Tarsonis' orbital defenses, so Killiany ordered General Ledbetter to in turn order Ndoci to take over the operation. Ndoci told her troops to kill everyone but Nova. This included Kelerchian. Her troops stormed Fagin's compound, causing it to collapse. Ralian was killed, while Nova and Kelerchian were trapped together, and Ndoci was trapped elsewhere in the building. Nova used her powers to rescue herself and Kelerchian, but the later was severely wounded. Ndoci entered the room and gleefully noted Kelerchian's state. Nova summoned her intimidating voice from her Old Family days. She ordered Ndoci to seek medical treatment from Kelerchian, rather than kill him. Ndoci was reluctantly forced to agree. That's when the Zerg attacked. The following fate of the Annihilators, Nova and Kelerchian was not immediately resolved. A New Life Despite her considerable psychic power, Nova was at a disadvantage in the Ghost training program, which had been moved to Ursa. She had been starved for six months and could barely handle Sergeant Hartley's training regime. Yet she pushed herself. Normally it takes a Ghost four years to get fully trained; accelerating the program didn't work. Nova did it in two and a half years, a record. Nova was met by Arcturus Mengsk himself, who gave her a final piece of training; kill Cliff Nadaner, a former anti-Confederate terrorist turned anti-Terran Dominion terrorist. Nadaner led the group that sent Edward Peters, Gustavo McBain and others to kill her family. Nadaner was hiding out on Tyrador VIII, and Nova had to kill him using only her mental powers. She was not given all the equipment a standard Ghost carries. Nova found Nadaner and his troops in their hideout. She swiftly slew them, saving Nadaner for last. After her training ended, Nova received a mindwipe. She would be used to hunt down the enemies of the Terran Dominion, such as the Koprulu Liberation Front. During a mission against the KPL on New Sydney, she once again met the Annihilators. Ndoci recognized Nova, but due to the mindwipe, Nova didn't know who Ndoci was. The Terra Family Game Unit These two and a half years of physical conditioning and training have made her one of Nova Squadron's foremost assassins. She uses much in the way of new technology and new psionic techniques in her missions as a student in the Ghost Academy, including psionic sight (which enables her to see heat signatures) and psionic speed (which quadruples her speed), in addition to traditional Terran Ghost techniques and equipment. Blizzard Entertainment previously announced that Nova can use the Terran cy-blade, the FWGS energy pistol, many new types of grenades, psionic shock (which dazes an opponent and inflicts short-term memory loss, which the opponent doesn't notice). As StarCraft: Ghost is still on hiatus, these abilities are subject to change. While seemingly loyal to the Terran Dominion, which Nova Squadron has joined, her true loyalty is to Colonel Jackson Hauler. After Swingin' Ape Studios was purchased by Blizzard and merged into their console design team, Nova's look changed from realistic to more anime-ish looking. References * StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment * Battle.net StarCraft Compendium * Information on Nova * DeCandido, Keith R. A. StarCraft: Ghost: Nova. New York: Pocket Star Books/Simon and Schuster, December 2006. ISBN 0743471342. Nova Nova